La Crosse is a city in Rush County, Kansas. It has 1,154 residents. La Crosse, Kansas has a quality-of-life score of 62 out of 100 (high), ranking #6,005 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Kansas it ranks #79 of 202 cities and towns. It ranks best on public libraries (high), students per teacher (low) and math scores (high). It ranks worst on job growth (low), arts, entertainment and recreation (low) and premature death (high).
62High
Quality-of-life score
#6,005 of 15,651 cities and towns
Kansas
#79 of 202 in KS
Population
1,154 (2020-2024)
Land area
1 mi²
Density
1,113.9 /mi²
FIPS code
2037500
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 71 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety53#7,357/15,637
Economy36#9,997/15,631
Housing91#1,395/14,977
Health24#11,887/15,609
Healthcare44#8,714/15,650
Environment71#4,417/15,453
Education92#1,310/15,649
Infrastructure50#7,878/15,650
Community77#3,547/15,651
Leisure & amenities22#12,224/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where La Crosse, Kansas ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Rush County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.
How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.
Cities and towns like La Crosse, Kansas five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of La Crosse, Kansas in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.
Who lives here
Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Local businesses
Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: La Crosse is mostly in Rush County.
Over about five years, La Crosse, Kansas improved on 2 of 13 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 11 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.
Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing
Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.
Improved2
Price / income−0.5×2.0× → 1.6×
Home price to income ratio
2.0× → 1.6×2015-2019 → 2020-2024
−0.5×Beyond the margin of error (±0.4×)
Standing among cities and towns: 83 → 97 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 93% of cities and towns
Household income+31%$41,094 → $53,750
Median household income
$41,094 → $53,7502015-2019 → 2020-2024
+31%Beyond the margin of error (±$8,549)
Standing among cities and towns: 20 → 21 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 57% of cities and towns
Declined0
No measure declined by more than its margin of error.
All 13 measures
Change of every measure of La Crosse, Kansas between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
19.6 min2015-2019
15.7 min2020-2024
−3.9 min
Within the margin of error
85%
Bachelor's degree or higher
26.7%2015-2019
27.3%2020-2024
+0.6 points
Within the margin of error
32%
Broadband subscriptions
82.7%2015-2019
90.5%2020-2024
+7.8 points
Within the margin of error
48%
Effective property tax rate
1.37%2015-2019
1.74%2020-2024
+0.4 points
Within the margin of error
1%
High school diploma or higher
92.2%2015-2019
84.1%2020-2024
−8.1 points
Within the margin of error
2%
Home price to income ratio
2.0×2015-2019
1.6×2020-2024
−0.5×
Improved
93%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.4112015-2019
0.4792020-2024
+0.068
Within the margin of error
10%
Median household income
$41,0942015-2019
$53,7502020-2024
+31%
Improved
57%
Poverty rate
7.0%2015-2019
8.1%2020-2024
+1.1 points
Within the margin of error
33%
Public transit commuters
0.0%2015-2019
0.0%2020-2024
0 points
Within the margin of error
60%
Rent as share of income
29.7%2015-2019
20.7%2020-2024
−9 points
Within the margin of error
92%
Rent-burdened households
49.7%2015-2019
39.4%2020-2024
−10 points
Within the margin of error
83%
Uninsured residents (under 65)
5.2%2015-2019
6.9%2020-2024
+1.7 points
Within the margin of error
28%
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.
Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.
For comparison, La Crosse, Kansas itself moved −0.7 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).
How the ranking works
Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.
La Crosse, Kansas is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Rush County, the county holding most of La Crosse's residents.
Rush County has 98 employer establishments, 345 for every 10,000 residents (1.39× the US rate of 248; 1.34× Kansas's), with 851 paid employees at an average annual pay of $56,542. The Census Bureau also counts 250 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
98
250 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
345
US 248 · Kansas 258
Paid employees
851
Average annual pay
$56,542
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Rush County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 2,837 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.
No federal contract obligations recorded here in FY2026.
